Mara Maru (1952)

April 24, 1952

' Mara Maru,' With Errol Flynn and Ruth Roman, New Film at the Warner Theatre

By BOSLEY CROWTHER

Published: April 24, 1952

The gobbledegookish title of Warner's "Mara Maru" is not the only obscure and unexciting thing about this stale adventure film. Its wholly improbable build-up of a criss-cross of rivalries to discover the clue to a treasure sunk off the Philippine coast is bleakly confused and grossly tiresome, and when the action does finally get around to the business of diving for the treasure it is hackneyed and cheaply emotionalized. Even Errol Flynn and Ruth Roman as the working stars in its cast give the impression of being bored and indifferent toward it all.

The story, conceived by three writers and made into a screen play by one, has Mr. Flynn as a salvage diver contending with some mysterious men along the waterfront of Manila to get the inside track in quest of the sunken jewels. When he does eventually reach the deep-sea treasure—in the midst, we might add, of a typhoon—he (and his deceitful associates) discover it to be a jeweled cross. The rest is a badly manufactured and falsely dramatized "chase" to return the religious object to the small church from which it was removed at the outbreak of the war.

Produced by David Weisbart and directed by Gordon Douglas, a new hand, the whole thing makes dull diversion at the Warner Theatre. As to the significance of the title, it is simply the name of the small boat in which they go out to dive for the treasure and which later piles up on the rocks.

On the stage at the Warner is a performance by the Ballet Theatre, featuring Alicia Alonso, Igor Youskevitch, John Kriza and Mary Ellen Moylan.